When it comes to Online Baseball or Softball Virtual Hitting Coach Lessons, Hitting Performance Lab Reviews its Promise would Change Things for the Better in the Bat and Ball Space
Hitting Performance Lab LLC has reviewed the baseball, fastpitch softball, slow-pitch world since it announced the launch of The Feedback Lab back in 2013. Hitting Performance Lab LLC’s online baseball or softball private hitting coach virtual lessons promised to shake things up and 9 years later, facts are in.
Previously, with even a passing glance, a person would notice that most private hitting instructors and team coaches lean their credibility on what level they made it to, how many years they’ve coached, how many lessons they’ve done, or their opinion based on someone else’s opinion. The Founder and CEO at Hitting Performance Lab LLC, Joey Myers, makes a point of saying “things were always going to change when The Feedback Lab launched”.
Let Me Do The Heavy Lifting For You!
CLICK the RED Button below for the #1 Strategy To Repeatable Power. The Feedback Lab hitting lesson program is clear focused Step-By-Step online video feedback & accountability in less than 48-hours...
“Competitors in this niche are typically doing the same old thing. Hitting Performance Lab applies human movement principles that are validated by science to hitting a ball. Science isn’t meant to be trusted; it’s meant to be tested. They ask the question, develop the hypothesis, do the research, collect the data, and form a conclusion.
Playing experience and teaching are completely different. 30 years of coaching can translate into the same year of coaching repeated over 30-years. Doing hundreds of thousands of lessons depends on being effective (doing the right things) versus being efficient (doing those things right). And opinions, are like, well…ahem…everyone has one!
The Hitting Performance Lab knows they’re not perfect. They know the limitations and biases human have. Teaching kids how to hit a baseball or softball can get stale and drift dangerously into dogma, which is the graveyard to consistent long-lasting progress.
Like Bruce Lee once said, ‘A martial artist who drills exclusively to a set pattern of combat is losing his freedom. He is actually becoming a slave to a choice pattern and feels that the pattern is the real thing. It leads to stagnation because the way of combat is never based on personal choice and fancies, but constantly changes from moment to moment, and the disappointed combatant will soon find out that his ‘choice routine’ lacks pliability.’
Ultimately, Hitting Performance Lab knew it was going to be of huge benefit to their customers because by applying human movement principles validated by science to hitting a ball, results become predictable in nature. It’s like getting the cheat codes to the test. Once the rules are known, hitting gets easier. Kids catch on faster. They have more positive results. They stay in the game longer! Hitting a ball consistently hard isn’t easy, but it can be made it easier, and FUN! They actually hope others follow suit.”
Cole BEFORE/AFTER Case Study: Online Baseball Private Hitting Coach Virtual Lessons for Beginners Ages 7yo+
Hitting Performance Lab was established in 2005. It has been doing business 17 years and it has always aimed to help every hitter trade physical ability for academic excellence! They want to make little boys and girls into hard working student athletes.
Currently, the closest thing to The Feedback Lab are VIDEO GAMES! Baseball is one of the slowest most misunderstood sports. At least fastpitch softball is faster paced! Sports are at war with instant gratification nowadays. Delayed gratification MUST get relearned. And it doesn’t help when the sport is being taught as an ineffective dogma that gets unpredictable results.
There’s too much frustration with the misinformation surrounding the craft, kids quit before realizing their full potential. It’s a shame. Applying human movement principles validated by science to hitting a ball can change that!
And The Feedback Lab improved on this by using science as a guide. Engineering, Physics, and Biomechanical principles matched up with what the best are ACTUALLY doing. One can use the online virtual hitting coach format to change the career trajectory of hitters across the country, on a computer.
There are ZERO boundaries. Joey Myers couldn’t imagine in 1996 when he was 16yos, living in Central California, and asking his parents to fly to Florida and work with a well-known hitting coach. Today, it can be done online! This alone was enough to make Hitting Performance Lab LLC’s online baseball or softball private hitting coach virtual lessons more popular with clients in the baseball, fastpitch softball, slow-pitch softball space, quickly.
CLICK the RED Button below for the #1 Strategy To Repeatable Power. The Feedback Lab hitting lesson program is clear focused Step-By-Step online video feedback & accountability in less than 48-hours...
Batting practice and training seems to be met with a caveman’s mentality…Me see ball. Me swing bat hard. Me crush ball far. I can always tell when a young hitter is swinging too hard by the following:
Pulling the head,
A clenched jaw, and/or
NO balance upon the follow through.
One great Big League example of caveman swinging is Yoenis Cespedes of the Boston Red Sox. In this video, we’re going to talk about how to correct swinging harder:
Problem with Reciprocal Inhibition relating to improper batting practice,
Cadence is key, and
Proprioception and swinging blind…
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
Problem with Reciprocal Inhibition Relating to Improper Batting Practice
Watch this simple demonstration on Reciprocal Inhibition (RI) from a Physical Therapist (start at the 0:38 mark):
Consider this:
Imagine bicep curling a 25-pound dumbbell…bicep contracts while brain tells muscle on opposite side (tricep) to contract less,
Now think about holding the same 25-pound dumbbell in mid-curl, arm is at a 90-degree angle, and forearm is parallel to the ground…
The quad (green) contracting more, while the hamstring (red) contracts less in this stretch. Photo courtesy: BandhayYoga.com
What’s happening there on #2 above?
It’s called an isometric muscle contraction, and is when both the bicep and tricep are contracting equally on both sides.
Your brain is smart. One of it’s many jobs is to manage tension around a joint (i.e. the elbow). To protect it. When you have bicep tendinitis, the length-tension relationship is upset. What happens is, the brain tells a muscle to tighten protecting a particular joint, until length-tension balance is restored…
How do you fix this?
According to the Physical Therapist in the above video link, you strengthen the muscles opposite the tight area. The brain can then contract the tight area less and restoring the length-tension relationship around the joint. And this ADDS more efficiency to dynamic movement…
Otherwise, this would be like driving your car with the parking brake on!
During batting practice (or in games), when we swing too hard, we’re driving the car with the parking brake on. It seems counter-intuitive to what we normally would think. But bio-mechanically speaking, this would be like the #2 scenario of the bicep -mid-curl above. We see the head pull out and jaw tighten because the brain is protecting the joints in the neck (C-Spine) and jaw from overload. And this can cause the hitter NOT be balanced in the follow through.
Grab This FREE 'Timing Master Class' Video
Struggling to get your hitters ON-TIME in games? Discover HOW TO build effective laser-focused timing, so your hitters can be ON-TIME more often. These principles are validated by REAL science.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that has been downloaded over 6K times!
Running – count how many times the right arm swings forward per minute. It should be between 85-90 times. Whether uphill or downhill.
Cycling – count each time the right knee floats up per minute while pedaling. Should be 85-90 times. Top cyclists change gears uphill or downhill to keep within these guidelines.
Faster than that, and tempo gets disrupted…parking brake gets applied. Batting practice is no different when it comes to a specific tempo. I once read someone say in a hitting forum that you have to swing as hard as you possibly can…wait for it…under COMPLETE control…
I know that’s a big scary word, but experiencing it is easy…stand on one foot, now shut your eyes. You’ve just experienced Proprioception.
The best fix for swinging too hard is…drum roll please….
Swinging with your eyes closed. Remember what I wrote about a hitter swings as hard as possible…under COMPLETE control?
This is how to practice taking the parking brake off during batting practice and games.
Also, remember the symptoms of swinging too hard I mentioned at the beginning of this video post…? Here are the fixes:
Pulling the head – the chin should be somewhere slightly out front of impact,
A clenched jaw – get the hitter to keep a small gap between their molars as they’re swinging, AND
NO balance upon the follow through – have the hitter practice swinging as hard as they can with their eyes closed, while keeping balance. If they fall over, then they’re swinging too hard.
The latter one, please DO NOT have them do this around any sharp or breakable objects that might hurt them :-/ You see, Yoenis Cespedes can win two All-Star home-run derbies in a row because he knows what pitch is coming, at what speed, and what location (for the most part). He can get away from pulling his head. In a game? It’s a different
BONUS Material
Want to help put the batting practice parking brake on vacation? Here are my two favorite corrective exercises that a majority of my new hitters have a problem with:
Passive Leg Lower (hip mobility) – week one: 1 set X 12 reps each leg, week two: 1 set X 15 reps each leg, week three: 2 sets X 12 reps each leg, and week four: 2 sets X 15 reps each leg…do once daily. Will increase running stride length, which indirectly can help them run faster.
Ankle Circles (ankle mobility) – do three circles clockwise AND counterclockwise at each ankle position…do at least 2-3 times per day everyday. Can get rid of shin splints and plantar fasciitis.
Grab This FREE 'Timing Master Class' Video
Struggling to get your hitters ON-TIME in games? Discover HOW TO build effective laser-focused timing, so your hitters can be ON-TIME more often. These principles are validated by REAL science.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that has been downloaded over 6K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Hitting-Drills-To-STOP-Pulling-Head-Off-In-Baseball-Or-Softball-Swing.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-09-12 09:15:072022-10-31 21:15:39Hitting Drills To STOP Pulling Head Off In Baseball Or Softball Swing | Balance Position When Batting
Batting Tips To STOP Flying Open & Get Front Foot Down On Time
This softball batting tips “Hit-Bit”, or hitting tid-bit, is an answer to questions from my readers when I asked them, “If you could have a private conversation with me, what two questions would you ask?”The answers are meant to be short, actionable, and tips you can use today.
Today’s Hit-Bit answers the reader questions:
“Drills to help kids not “fly open” with front hip. Drills / Methods on getting front foot down on time”
We’ll address:
Pre-loading the torso before landing,
Timing: 2-Plate Drill (progressions & regressions), and
Keep coaching feedback to a minimum.
And yes, these softball batting tips work for baseball too…
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
Look, it’s not the front hip we should be worried about. Young hitters have been over-coached for the past three decades to ‘load and explode the hips’, and that the ‘hips lead the way’. Our concern should be, what happens before the hips lead? Or, what should happen? In other words, it’s not a “fly open with front hip” issue, it’s a ‘fly open with front shoulder’ issue.
Tony Gwynn knew the importance of keeping that front shoulder in. CLICK HERE for a video I did on him. The torso MUST be pre-loaded to as close to landing as possible (watch main video above on how to do this). This is how springy fascia in the torso is charged.
Timing: Varied Reaction LIVE Toss Drill (progressions & regressions)
Another coaching cue that just doesn’t work is, “get the front foot down early”. This can create a host of other timing issues. The hitting sequence is a ‘dance’. You never see the pitcher get their stride foot down early, momentarily pause, and then throw a pitch.
This is my favorite drill for getting the front foot down on time, or at least training the ‘dance’ part of the sequence. Here are some timing posts I did relating to this:
CLICK HERE for a softball batting tips post I did on giving feedback to hitters.
It has to do with the Goldilocks Golden Rule. Too much feedback, and you’re micro-managing. Nothing at all, and the player never knows if they’re on the right track. But just the right amount, strategically placed, makes a world of difference!
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/How-To-Keep-Front-Side-Shoulder-In-Fix-Flying-Open-For-Baseball-Softball-Swing.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-09-11 09:00:132022-09-12 05:39:46Keep Front Side Shoulder In & Fix Flying Open For Baseball Softball Swing | STOP Pulling Or Spinning Off, Hitting Ball Off End, Not Squaring Up, Correct Stride Foot Timing, & Being Late
Discover the Gary Sheffield swing path hitting drills approach to hit for opposite field power. Learn how this works for baseball, fast pitch, and slow pitch softball!
Gary Sheffield Talks Hitting Mentioning 1 Shocking Swing Mistake He Didn’t Make…
In this Gary Sheffield Talks Hitting video, 500 Home Run Club member Gary Sheffield talks about his hitting style, plate approach and adjustments to different ballparks with Mark DeRosa, Bill Ripken and Robert Flores on MLB Central. Some of what you’ll find in the video:
1 shocking swing mistake Sheffield didn’t make,
Pitch recognition that Gary Sheffield is talking about,
Change your stance depending on the field?
What does focus on staying to the right of your left side mean? And,
Making swing adjustments because of injury to compete…
For your convenience below, I’ve time stamped my notes, so you can jump to wherever the conversation interests you…
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
At about the 3-minute, 20-second mark, Sheffield talks about how after hitting 40+ homers between his AA and AAA season, he was brought up to MLB club and the powers at be tried to “flatten his bat” (for him a mistake he didn’t make). Because they wanted a lead-off speed guy who hits the ball to right field. When he got to San Diego, they wanted him to pick up the ball at 3rd base, they didn’t expect him to hit. This was disrespectful to Sheffield. He went from a guy not just trying to get on base, but to do damage.
At about the 4-minute mark, Gary Sheffield talks about his famous bat tilt-waggle, and how it’s all in the fingers. To get a nice relaxed crisp move with the fingers. Like dancing.
At about the 5-minute mark, Sheffield talks about picking pitcher up at release to differentiate what he’s throwing. Pitch recognition. He doesn’t care what the pitcher does before that moment. He said he looked for the heater and nothing changed on that approach throughout his career. He wants the pitcher to fool him. He doesn’t want to miss on the fastball. All he wants to know is what is the pitcher’s out pitch – the one he goes to the most when he needs it. Doesn’t swing at fork balls. He groups the fastball and slider together – as one pitch.
At about the 7-minute mark, Gary Sheffield talks about how he adjusts his stance depending on the park he’s playing in. Examples…in San Diego the dimensions are fair, so he uses all fields. At “fair” parks he didn’t feel like hitting the ball oppo made him lose something. In Florida with the Marlins, he got closer to the plate and became strictly a pull hitter because of short fence in left field. Homers came by way of left and left center, rarely to center. Goal of double digit homers to opposite field, so he was almost guaranteed 30 to 40 homers per year. Billy Ripken made the comment that he’s never heard of anyone else who did this, except maybe when hitting at Fenway. Dodger stadium was “fair” to him. Mentioned at night it got dewey there, ball didn’t fly as far. His strength was center field in LA.
At about 9-minute mark, Sheffield talks about his right elbow position to be ready to “punch”. Athletic position. Legs up under him. When hitting he just thinks about his left side. Tells his kids to cut the left side out. Focus on being to the right of your left side. Walking in the batter’s box sideways, so he knows he’s in the same spot every time. He wants to work sideways, so he can stay behind his left side.
At about 11-minute mark, Sheffield his swing is dominant front arm. Front arm goes straight to the ball. Billy Ripken talks about “squashing a bug“. They all comment on Gary Sheffield’s bat waggle and how parallel the barrel got to the ground at one point in the swing. Sheffield talked about an injury he had to his right foot, plantar fasciitis, that required him to skip/hop his back foot. Had to unlearn later. Interesting confession on making an adjustment to compete.
'Add 40-Feet' To Batted Ball Distance
Swing Study reveals how tens of thousands of hitters are adding 40-feet to batted ball distance by using one simple strategy.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's been downloaded over 30K times!!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Gary-Sheffield-Swing-Path-Hitting-Drills-Approach-To-Opposite-Field-Power-Works-For-Baseball-Softball-Slow-Pitch.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-09-06 09:00:352022-09-06 20:02:27Gary Sheffield Swing Path Hitting Drills Approach To Opposite Field Power Works For Baseball, Softball, & Slow Pitch
Discover how to improve hitting timing tips, get the front foot down on time, and fix late baseball or softball swing. Learn how in this Josh Hamilton batting rhythm swing breakdown.
Josh Hamilton Swing Breakdown: Coaches Don’t Tell You This…
…In this Josh Hamilton swing breakdown we’re focusing on what most coaches don’t tell you (or simply don’t know) about calibrating the timing of a hitter. You can have the best hitting mechanics, but if timing is off, results can be frustrating. In this video, we’ll analyze:
When does a swing start?
Leg kick or slide step? and
How to practice timing?
When Does a Swing Start?
Short answer? About when the hitter picks the front foot up. When walking, you can’t take a step forward without picking up your foot and putting it back down. This is why I hate “no-stride” coaching cues. Here’s how walking bio-mechanics work:
Front heel hits the ground signals pelvis to open.
Same timing signal travels up the spine to the shoulders, telling them to counter-rotate the pelvis.
This is why your opposite arm and leg come forward at the same time.
This simple timing mechanism is important to hitting. Hitting experts call this torque, but really, it’s how humans are designed to move against gravity using the spine for locomotion. CLICK HERE for a more in–depth study on walking bio-mechanics according to Dr. Serge Gracovetsky.
Leg Kick or Slide Step?
It ALL depends on a batter’s moving parts…
Leg Kick a-la Josh Hamilton forces the hitter to start the swing sooner. Hamilton starts his when the pitcher breaks the hands.
Slide Step a-la Mike Trout can start their swing later. You’ll see these types of hitters picking their front foot up when the pitcher lands and/or begins forward movement with the arm.
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
SEVEN ways a hitter can practice “collecting data”:
LIVE arm: whether seated – on a bucket, kneeling, or standing.
Soft toss or LIVE: throw baseballs, whiffle, dimple, tennis, golf, or dried pinto beans.
Broad focus: have hitter pick out a point in the pitcher’s delivery to start the swing.
On-Deck circle: work on when to pick front foot up.
Sit in on Bullpens: hitter passively (no swings) sits in on pitcher bullpens (with a helmet on of course).
Pitcher’s BP: have pitchers trade off throwing batting practice (advanced).
Intra/Inter-squat games.
Above-all, be safe. The truth about Josh Hamilton timing? It takes reps, reps, and more reps. CLICK HERE for Part-3 Matt Holliday: The Death Of Plate Discipline. In case you missed Part-1 Mike Trout: Why Your Consistency Won’t Improve, CLICK HERE.
Grab This FREE 'Timing Master Class' Video
Struggling to get your hitters ON-TIME in games? Discover HOW TO build effective laser-focused timing, so your hitters can be ON-TIME more often. These principles are validated by REAL science.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that has been downloaded over 6K times!
Are hitting hip rotation lower half loading drills, using the legs, good for beginning baseball or softball swing power and quick hands? My good friend Matt Nokes shines light on this hitting conundrum…
Matt Nokes: Why Rotating Back Hip Through Zone IS NOT Necessary For Power
In this Matt Nokes post, I wanted to bust a MYTH that Homer Bush brought up in his interview last week, and that is the MYTH that rotating the back hip through the zone is necessary for power.
This past week, I re-tweeted this from @HyattCraig (who is awesome btw), of one of two Miguel Cabrera homers in a game, and this particular one he hit to CF:
Look at Miggy’s back foot step behind him. Also, he doesn’t get full rotation of his pelvis ? https://t.co/l11qIOLPnp
The next day after that Tweet, I found this private message from a follower on Twitter:
“Joey, Honest question. I love most everything you post and It goes with all of the philosophies I teach as an instructor, but this particular post I don’t quite understand. Are you saying a backwards step of sorts and having limited pelvic rotation are positives? I don’t feel like this is practical for anyone that isn’t 6’3 225 when the pitcher is providing the power at 93. If you have time could you please clarify this for me?”
My response:
“Thanks for asking about that. A couple things, we do have to be careful about taking from big slugger analysis. I don’t mind what the back foot does as long as its un-weighting AND not skipping forward too much. Miggy has a great line following the batted ball, it has to do with optimizing centrifugal (center-fleeing) forces. As an example, the belly button should point where the batted ball has exited. Coach Matt Nokes talks quite a bit about full rotation not being an absolute to hitting.”
Which brings me to the above video, where Coach Matt Nokes walks us through numerous examples of elite hitters not fully rotating their back foot (and pelvis) until after impact. Also, let me define full rotation of the pelvis (or hips as some refer to it as), at least from what I see/hear/watch from other people out there…
Full pelvic rotation is getting the hitter’s belly button to face shortstop (for a righty, or 2B for lefty) on any pitch…inside, middle, and outside. I’ve found this gospel preached from those who don’t ‘buy into’ or understand the loading of springy fascia in the torso, since to them, the shoulders would be seen as ‘inactive’, before the hitter starts turning.
Therefore the pelvis has to do all the heavy lifting. This method is far from optimal, and NOT very safe for the lower backs of youth hitters across the nation, and even more disturbing will continue to keep Orthopedic surgeons in business.
CLICK HERE for a post I did explaining how the swing isn’t rotational OR linear, but that’s it’s actually linear, rotational, then linear again. The purpose of this post, is to open up discussion about whether rotating the back hip through the zone is necessary for power IS or IS NOT a myth…
Lastly,
I wanted to share one of my favorite Coach Matt Nokes drills for practicing what he preaches. It’s his “Around the Zone” soft toss (coaches please be careful with this):
What say you…?
Grab This FREE 'Timing Master Class' Video
Struggling to get your hitters ON-TIME in games? Discover HOW TO build effective laser-focused timing, so your hitters can be ON-TIME more often. These principles are validated by REAL science.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that has been downloaded over 6K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Are-Hitting-Hip-Rotation-Lower-Half-Loading-Drills-Using-Legs-Good-For-Beginner-Baseball-Softball-Swing-Power-Quick-Hands.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-08-24 09:00:202022-08-24 19:48:51Are Hitting Hip Rotation Lower Half Loading Drills Using Legs Good For Beginner Baseball Softball Swing Power & Quick Hands?
Learn how to REALLY use the legs and lower half in directional place hitting drills for baseball or softball beginners at home. Discover hip rotation swing loading breakdown tips in this interview with Matt Nokes!
Dangers Over-Rotating Low Half: What is Directional Force? And WHY is it Important?
This hitting training interview with Matt Nokes was pulled from the seventh issue of our Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter. What is that? On a monthly basis,
We pick a hitting theme,
Write a Newsletter around the theme,
Give favorite hitting drill addressing the theme,
Prescribe corrective exercises to amplify the drill’s goal, and as if that wasn’t enough,
We also include 2 expert interviews on the subject…
EVERY month!
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
This hitting training post is POWER packed!! The above video, Matt put together special for this episode. CLICK HERE to listen to the 30-minute podcast episode.
Here are some of the hard hitting training points we cover in the Nokes interview (pun intended of course):
What’s the Major Benefit to “Staying Sideways”,
What is Making the Hips Turn?
Dangers to Performance of Over-Rotating the Lower Half,
What is Directional Force? And Why is it Important? And,
Around the Zone Drill for Staying Sideways.
What follows is copy and pasted transcript from the 30-minute hitting training audio interview. If you want to download the pdf version, so you can print it out, and highlight the heck out of it, then you can download that here: https://gohpl.com/33XxDcI
Enjoy!
Joey Myers 00:00
All right, hello and welcome to Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter. This is your host Joey Myers from HittingPerformanceLab.com, and on with me as a special guest a special surprise Mr. Matt Nokes, former Major Leaguer, two time All Star, Silver Slugger award winner.
Joey Myers 00:14
And the day that I met Matt was probably three or four years ago, I was introduced, the Backspin tee bros… Taylor and Jarrett Gardner, and we were talking hitting the whole time down in San Diego. I think it’s when they had the all-star game there in San Diego. And we were even talking hitting training in parking structures at the different levels. We went to a library we went all over the place. So Matt Noakes, welcome to the show.
Matt Nokes 00:41
Good Joey. First, thank you for inviting me.
Joey Myers 00:44
You got it, sir. Hey, I wanted to kick off. I wanted to talk about because we’re going to be looking at the idea of staying sideways with the lower half, directional force, all that. So, I wanted to get your view, since you introduced it to me and introduced it to the backspin tee guys, what’s the major benefit of staying sideways? And maybe a detriment to not staying sideways? Maybe over rotating? Which I see a lot of young hitters do?
What’s the Major Hitting Training Benefit to “Staying Sideways”
Matt Nokes 01:13
Well, I think there are several reasons. I mean, it’s a whole system, right? It’s your lower body. And it’s been misinterpreted for so many years. Because of well, the communication wasn’t necessary. Let’s just say when a major leaguer’s talking to another major leaguer, they’re just spouting out hitting training words that don’t mean a whole heck of a lot. Or it could mean 50 different things. But they’re talking to someone who’s been watching their teammate. They know what they’re going through. It’s what they say just a little bit. They know what they’re saying.
Matt Nokes 01:53
And so a lot of the conversation is nonverbal. And so, this whole thing of using your hips, it’s just something that has been brought up to people. And if you think about it, when you’re hitting, for people who haven’t been hitting, or who don’t know how to hit, they don’t see the patterns that you and I see or that a high school, college, pro player, or major leaguer, they don’t see the patterns that we see.
Matt Nokes 02:27
And so, the varying levels of, there’s a huge amount of information that you need to know just to see certain things. Right? And so, it’s what, it’s why there’s this confusion. And people just haven’t really taken the time to, or they just didn’t feel like, feel the need to explain any more. Because, as one of my good friends Darrell Evans always said is well, I can’t tell you everything.
Matt Nokes 02:56
Like he’ll explain some awesome conflict. I go, why don’t you tell me that, you know, 20 years ago when we were in the big leagues? Because I can’t tell you everything, because you knew. He hit 400 or over 400 home-runs. But there were some hitting training things that he didn’t question. And things that I questioned, and vice versa, I wish I would have had that information from the beginning.
Matt Nokes 03:22
And it’s not so much that we see the patterns, because everyone sees oh, you know, that front leg straightens out at some point, that must be important. Okay, well, it kind of straightens out when you block. Sometimes it doesn’t when your way into your legs. But the point is, it’s blocked, blocking. And because there’s rotation, it’s going to straighten out, close to contact.
Matt Nokes 03:54
Like everybody knows, if you ever thought about straightening out your front leg thinking that that’s going to be key, that’s going to be one of my adjustments. One of my adjustments, that I’m going to get three hits tonight, you know that, that would be like the worst thing to think about, right? You would leak. You would just pole vault, leak your way up and out over the top.
Matt Nokes 04:17
So having said that, it’s not enough to see a pattern, you have to be able to go beyond that and see the model, you have to be able to model what’s going on, you have to know get to see hitting training in three dimensions as opposed to, drawing triangles, you need to see the pyramid. You need to see more of really what’s happening to understand it. So, when you look at somebody hit, you see their hips turning. It’s like no, they do turn, you know, I mean, I am watching them turn, but you have to look past that and say, what is making it turn?
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
What is Making the Hips Turn?
Matt Nokes 05:03
And when it comes to, why does it turn? And when it comes to all the other comments about using the ground, which is, you hit from the ground up and lead with ground force, and it starts from the bottom and goes up, back foot turns, the back-knee turns, hips turn, in the core turns the shoulders turn, and then you swing.
Matt Nokes 05:26
That makes sense if it was geared that way, but it’s not. Because your power source is your well, is your trunk, your upper body, or let’s call it the core. But I think it’s even more general than that, I think you just hit with your upper body, but you use a weight shift, and you need something to swing against.
Matt Nokes 05:47
Like, if you’re hanging on a rope, you can’t really turn. I mean you could, but you just wiggling. If you get your feet on the ground, then you can turn your upper body. Anybody that sat on a machine to work their core rotationally, they know that when you sit into the machine, it clamps your lower body down, or your upper body one or the other. So that you can forcefully rotate.
Matt Nokes 06:20
Okay, so that’s the hitting training concept. If you want to rotate, you need something to rotate against. And yet, we still see the core, I mean, the hips turn, okay? Well, that’s because they’re attached. And at contact, you’ve unloaded your backside. And because you’ve unloaded it, of course, it’s free to turn. But it’s that much more important that you get in a really good position.
Matt Nokes 06:55
The idea of a sideways approach is, you have to get in a good position, it needs to be a consistent position. And you have to be on time. What that does is it helps you be on the ball. So that may just sound some random, random to some people. But I’ll give you a hitting training illustration, or I’ll give you an analogy. Let’s say you’re hitting soft toss from the side, I mean, directly from the side. And you know how easy that is. Now, I’m a left-handed hitter, how easy it is to crush the ball over the shortstop head.
Matt Nokes 07:39
The opposite way, if it’s coming from the side, because you just shift right past it, you smoke it! You know you’re not supposed to pull the ball, but what happens to your lower body. Think about what is your lower body do when you get soft toss from the side? It firms up and is basically, it’s certainly not as open as it does, from the front, or I’m sorry, like on an inside pitch.
Matt Nokes 08:09
So basically, it’s that feeling of being on the ball. It’s really important that you are sideways, in order to be on the ball. So that you’re in position into a consistent position, you know how when you’re hitting…let’s say soft toss again, when you hit your first ball, and you think, my shoulder needs to be a little bit more closed. And then you hit it again go, oops, my hips are at position, my foot’s in the wrong position, you make those fine-tuning adjustments.
Matt Nokes 08:38
Well, you can do that. On soft toss because you can almost automatically manage variables, which you have to manage. Because you’re in a controlled setting, it’s unlikely, you back it up to 60 feet, and the same hitting training variables that you could manage automatically, without even thinking, the scenario enables your automatic mind to relate it to something you already know or to just be familiar with the motion for it to be common sense. And you can do it.
Matt Nokes 09:15
But when you add more variables, well then you have to make sure that your routines and how you practice, that you have those things in mind so that you’re prepared to not pull off the ball. But if you do pull off, you know how to make an adjustment to position yourself.
Matt Nokes 09:35
And it’s one last thing, it’s like if you had never seen a Phillips head screwdriver, never seen it or never even seen a screwdriver. And you were showing me that this is how I’m going to hang a painting. And you found the stud finder, and you found the stud, and then you basically shorten it, you screwed it. You twisted in a screw into the wall. And then hung the painting with that wire, right? It’s kind of hung and then even it up.
Matt Nokes 10:04
So how do you use the screwdriver? Well, there’s some utility there. You know what you’re doing? Because you’ve seen it, it didn’t take a lot of examples. You’re holding the screwdriver in your hand, you’re like, I know how to do this. And how long does it take you to become an expert? With that movement? I mean, he says well, it doesn’t take expert movement. Oh, yeah? How does a monkey do that? Or a child?
Matt Nokes 10:34
Where a monkey could do other complex things. But not that, because they can’t look at it and see the utility. But you and I, and everyone on the planet can be basically an expert in five minutes. Context matters.
Joey Myers 10:54
And you know what’s unique about our sport is that we only have 90 degrees of fair territory to work with. And whereas you look at bowling you maybe it’s what three and a half feet a lane and then even in golf, you can argue that you only have one degree of fair territory and 359 degrees of foul territory, because you get rewarded for the shortest number of strokes to the pin.
Joey Myers 11:16
One of the hitting training stories that you told was really cool on this. I don’t know if it was Frank Robinson, or who it was that you were talking to. But I think you had gone away from staying sideways. And you started to like, what most coaches and young kids do is over rotate the lower half. And then you said you broke away from what you were naturally doing. And you slumped, and then you came back. Tell that story?
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Dangers to Performance of Over-Rotating the Lower Half
Matt Nokes 11:39
Yeah. Okay. So, I always think it’s important to add empirical evidence, which is that which can be verified or falsified by your senses, or your experience, your personal experience at the highest level. My first year in the big leagues…well, anyway, I just got up to the big leagues. And it was the all-star break. And I was sitting at the all-star break with 20 home runs, hitting like .320. And like 57 RBI’s, you could say I was doing well. And I was hot. And I was young.
Matt Nokes 12:24
And Dave Bergman and Bill Madlock, teammates of mine, were shagging balls at first base. And I guess they were talking to each other. And they came up to me, and they said, man Nokesy, you must really feel on the ball. And I said, Yeah. Because your back foot stays sideways. And well, I didn’t know what to make of that. And because I had worked that out that I just knew I was on the ball. I thought, okay, I thought they were saying, well, it’s unorthodox Matt, but you make it work.
Matt Nokes 13:01
I get to the All-Star game. And I’m watching up on the diamond vision. That’s what they called it then. And watching the highlights and stuff. And I started to notice that that back-knee pinch. You got to remember; I wasn’t really familiar, familiar with the exact things that were going on. And most major league guys really aren’t as much as you would think. They have a general sense. But there are things that they don’t, I mean, they know what it feels like. And they can replicate because of that, and they understand that through feel.
Matt Nokes 13:40
I thought, man that back knee looks like it’s rotating. So maybe the back foot turns too. I’m sitting at 20 home-runs, maybe I would have had 30 or 40 home runs by now. I thought, man, I’m going to really drop that knee and kind of now they’re saying you got to try the back knee, that kind of thing. It’s just as bad as rotating back foot. Even though it does collapse, because…it does collapse because it’s passive. It’s passive because you unloaded it, and your upper body doing the rotation.
Matt Nokes 14:17
And for the next couple of weeks, I focused on that I focused on my back-knee kind of collapsing and my back-foot rotating. And I didn’t get a hit for two weeks. But I felt great in batting practice, I was hitting home runs, I was launching balls, as usual. And my timing was good because, so I couldn’t really see the difference in batting practice in order to make an adjustment because I was crushing balls still, but I knew there was something missing.
Matt Nokes 14:49
In pitchers shagging were used to me hitting a certain way, actually approaching. They said something wrong. I mean, you’re hitting balls well, but it’s just not coming off the bat the way used to. And I agreed. I haven’t had a hit in a couple weeks. And finally, Dave Bergman and Bill Madlock came up to me after a couple of weeks, because I’m sure you know, they had their own life, their own hitting training problems they were dealing with, and they didn’t notice why I was going into a slump.
Matt Nokes 15:21
And they came up and said, what are you doing? Like, what do you mean? You’ve never rotated your back foot like that, ever? And I go, oh, didn’t you? Didn’t you say I was being unorthodox. I just thought I’d make it better. And they go, you idiot. No, that’s your problem. And so, they’d have to say much other than it just shocked me so much that I got back in the batting cage, just start smoking balls, keeping it sideways. And oh, I hit two home runs that game. And then from then on, I was, I knew that that was a hitting training rule. That was a principle I needed to follow it. Even though back then I didn’t really understand it.
Joey Myers 16:09
That is one of the, of all my young hitters from I mean, now I just work with 11 or 12, all the way up to junior high, high school, college and stuff. I don’t work with any hitters lower than that. But usually the ones lower than that age, typically, if they haven’t been over coached, do that naturally. They do stay sideways, right? They get coached out of it, for the most part.
Matt Nokes 16:32
Absolutely.
Joey Myers 16:33
And I would say the ones that have been coached out of it, and I’m just getting them. And it’s probably about 40 to 50% of them over rotate that lower half. You talk about this idea of directional force. Talk a little bit about that.
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
What is Directional Force? And Why is it Important?
Matt Nokes 16:47
Well, you know, it takes 8,000 pounds per square foot, or I’m sorry, per square inch into the baseball to hit baseball 400 feet. And I have no question that even High School players generate way, way more energy than that swinging a bat, that large of an arc, the sweet spot of the bat is moving, you can generate a lot of force with a baseball bat.
Matt Nokes 17:16
It’s not that they can’t generate the energies that can’t direct the force. And it’s going all over the place. They’re not getting the bulk of the energy through the ball in one direction. And, yeah, so basically…
Joey Myers 17:34
Being sideways helps with that.
Matt Nokes 17:36
Yes, because it stabilizes your lower half, so that your upper body rotation is pure, there’s no leak in it. Your energy is not going in a lot of directions. You brought up the point about, there’s a lot of fair territory and foul territory. So that’s confusing, because the basic 90 degrees, it’s that you’re hitting the ball in. There’s that sliver, where you get a hit, you know, maybe 10 degrees, 36 degrees, it pretty much everything is either a popup or ground ball, right? And then you got a lot of foul territory, it’s not cricket.
Matt Nokes 18:18
And then you can hit a ball to the left that you thought you should have pulled, or you could hit ball the right, they just thought you should have hit the other way, or whatever it is, that can get confusing, because you don’t necessarily understand right out of the box, where the direction of force should be, or you’re not aware of your personal direction of force, until you experience it until you create a scenario where you can actually rehearse it.
Matt Nokes 18:46
Because if you get a hit, you don’t think you need to go into it very much more. But if you’re hammering a nail, there’s going to be some consequences. The nail is going to go flying, if you don’t hit it with the right force in the right direction. But with hitting, it’s confusing, because you can still get a hit and lose a lot of energy, you can still hit it hard and lose a lot of energy. But ultimately, so that’s confusing in itself, you hit a ball the other way, one time, you pull the ball the other time. And you think you did it right, even though you lost energy in both directions. And yet, you don’t get a hit.
Matt Nokes 19:26
The amount of time that you’re actually driving the ball consistently goes down. But you’re not concerned with direction of course, because you’re hitting the ball in all directions. It just gets confusing. You don’t know what’s wrong, you don’t know what’s going on, what’s wrong, what’s right, what hitting training is working, what’s not.
Joey Myers 19:44
And you have a hitting training drill, the around the world drill. You can explain that one. That’s a pretty good one, I think for demonstrating what you’re talking about the direction of force.
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Around the Zone Drill for Staying Sideways
Matt Nokes 19:54
Yeah, well, in short. Every major leaguer, and advanced hitter has a feel for certain things. And if you get to that level, you figured out a way to rehearse or do a drill. So that it reinforces good habits. Good positions, good timing, good directional force, you may not be aware of it, but you just see the results, the empirical results.
Matt Nokes 20:23
And, yes, so the around the zone is around the world there. If you begin from the side, and you get the ball, coming from the side. There are rules, and why the rules? Well, there are rules because you can’t just do the drill any way you want, there’s a certain way that it’ll be effective, there’s a certain technique that will be effective, if you don’t do it that way, you’re not going to get anything out of it.
Matt Nokes 20:54
It’s the same for every drill, every rehearsal, if you don’t know what you’re doing, how you’re supposed to do it, what it’s for, what you’re doing, how you’re supposed to execute it, why you’re doing it, and what it’s going to feel like, what feel you’re searching for, then you’re just wasting your time.
Matt Nokes 21:15
And as a young player, I remember some of my great coaches as a young player, you know, they just see me work and work and work and hit it. And I’m hitting up 300 balls into the net, and they’re like, stop! You need to be strategic when you’re doing it, like, what are you trying to accomplish right here? I don’t know. I just figured if I just keep hitting, it’ll come to me. No, all that’s going to do is lead to a million different desperate fixes. That’s all that’s going to do.
Matt Nokes 21:45
And then I’m addressing every system, with timing, the mechanics, and your mindset. Not addressing those, in keeping the balance between them. There are certain rules. You get a ball from the side. You want me explain it?
Joey Myers 22:01
Yeah. So when you say side, you mean chest on? So perpendicular to the hitter?
Matt Nokes 22:06
Yeah. Okay. You get, I’m a left-handed hitter. So, imagine you’re in the right-handed batter’s box, and then just behind it, and so you’re throwing it from the side. And so maybe you’re throwing it at my back hip, or that kind of thing. The way you set up the drill, and I call a drill with a ball and a rehearsal without the ball, and there’s reasons for that, which I’ll go into later.
Matt Nokes 22:31
But setting up the drill, so you’re throwing on it. What I say is, okay, the arc that the ball’s coming in on forms the line. And you need to pay attention to that line, and then draw 90 degrees from that line from where you’re standing Joey. The ball’s coming in at me, and then from you out to center field is, would approximately be 90 degrees.
Matt Nokes 23:01
And I say, okay, now where’s your 45 degrees? And then as long as you hit it inside of the 45, you’ll crush it with your weight, you’ll get your weight into the ball, because you’re shifting into the swing, and past the line that you see. And that may be complicated. Because there’s a certain amount of information that you need to know to actually kind of visualize it and understand why it works like that…
Joey Myers 23:29
And I can include a link to your drill video too. [The following is the “Around the Zone Soft Toss Drill” video as promised:
Matt Nokes 23:31
Yeah, okay, yeah, I break it down. And I show you, I mean, you go 46 degrees, it’s going to be a topspin ground-ball. And so, you have to address the drill, you have to follow the rule, that’s the easiest way, if I’m going to give a player action steps and not just try to convince them of some hitting theory. And I was like hey, let’s get into action. Let’s not worry about hitting theory until you already feel what you got to do.
Matt Nokes 24:01
Because once you feel it, then all of a sudden, your intuition about why you’re doing it, and what it’s fixing will be enhanced, and you’ll be able to see things that you couldn’t ordinarily see. You go from the side. And so now the ball, let’s say I’m hitting in that as a left-handed hitter. Initially, I’m hitting the ball, right down the left field line. And then as you work your way around, but you know, maybe at eight, eight or 10 ball down in the left field line, opposite field, because it’s being thrown from the side, as long as I shift my weight perpendicular to the line and get beyond the line. I’m getting my weight to the ball.
Matt Nokes 24:45
Because good timing is transferring your weight into the ball on time and what you’ll find is you’ll gain incredible power increases because you’re transferring to the ball on time, you’re able to regulate that system really well and make fine tuning adjustments, and you’re actually hitting the ball in the correct direction.
Matt Nokes 25:11
For those of you who don’t quite understand it, I can give you an example of, one extreme example, if I was getting that same ball, that I would normally hit down the left field line, which is opposite field, if I’m throwing a ball from the side, I’ve seen guys in the batting cage, and I would walk in the cage, and they’re hitting balls up the middle of that, and I walk by a coach and they say, Hey, do you see anything Nokesy? And, you know, okay, and, and then I’ll take the tee and put it out front.
Matt Nokes 25:45
Well, they have the tee in the center of their legs, like inside, and like, behind the front foot, or between the legs, and they’re hitting the ball up the middle. Well, if you got a ball that far back, you got to hit that ball the other way. But it’s not very exciting to hit a ball on into the net three feet away, it’s just not that exciting. But that’s the direction you need to be hitting, you need to get your weight beyond that ball, to transfer your weight in the ball, because we’re talking about directional force.
Matt Nokes 26:19
But what a player will do is they’ll run away from the ball, shift, try to stay on their back foot to clear, to give them some kind of room to hit that ball, to hit that ball up the middle. Because they’re thinking about what they’re doing incorrectly, they’re trying to hit a ball up the middle that they’re not supposed to hit up the middle.
Matt Nokes 26:41
And so you just work that drill correctly. And then you start moving your soft tosser, you start moving them around, until eventually they’re in the front, and you’re hitting it down the right field line. And actually, when you do it correctly, you can’t hook it foul. Now you think what do you mean? You could literally have someone right in front of you. Throwing it at your front hip, he can’t hook it foul. Why? Because you’ve got your weight into the ball and your weight is in the ball at contact, you’re in line.
Matt Nokes 27:11
It may not even be a lot of lag, just enough lag to get that whip. It’s just pre final whip. It’s just pre where you rollover, it’s always going to be if your weight is into the ball. Think about it, if you don’t shift your weight into the ball on time. That’s a slap. That’s a hook. That’s called quitting. So yeah. What you’re getting yourself out of is from quitting.
Matt Nokes 27:37
And that’s what happens when someone is trying to hit a ball that’s deep between their legs and trying to hit it up the middle. The only way to hit that ball up the middle is to quit.
Joey Myers 27:49
Got it. That’s a great drill. And again, I’ll add the drill video that you have on YouTube in the post. Well, hey, man, I would love to do a part two at some point, but to be respectful of your time. Where can people find you? Are there any special projects you’re working on right now? Just a little bit about where people can go to get more information on you.
Matt Nokes 28:10
Yeah, thanks, Joey. You can go to MattNokes.com. I have courses available. And I have a free advanced hitting workshop. And after if you’d like to consult with me, there’s a link at the end of the workshop. But you can also go to CallNokes.com and schedule a call with me. We figure out what’s working what’s not, and create a blueprint. And if I can help you I certainly will. You can also go to YouTube and find my videos you punch my name in, punch in Matt Nokes and you can find a lot of my videos on YouTube like case studies and things like that. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks, Joey. Thanks for inviting me on the program.
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
Grab Swing Smarter Monthly Newsletter for Low Cost of One Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks Per Month!
YES! SIGN ME UP
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/hitting-training-matt-nokes-interview-e1600899762835.png281500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-08-21 09:00:562023-08-18 21:38:48Use Legs & Lower Half Directional Place Hitting Drills For Baseball Softball Beginners At Home | Hip Rotation Swing Loading Breakdown Tips
Discover whether the baseball or softball batting weight donut (not to be confused with a doughnut!) is or IS NOT a benefit to the Little League swing? Weighted donut Amazon reviews: Easton, Power Wrap, and Varo.
Using Batting Weight On-Deck May Dangerous To Bat & Ball Exit Speed?
This post may blow the minds of those that didn’t get the memo…
You can read the article in full by clicking the previous link, but I wanted to include important bullet points from the article and Sports Science video above:
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
“Studies conducted over several decades have concluded that the ritual popular among professionals and emulated by amateurs doesn’t increase bat speed. It may actually slow it down…’the best is your own bat'”
According to the Zepp app, average professional bat speeds range from 75 to 90-mph, average High School and College bat speeds range from 65 to 80-mph, and average youth bat speeds range from 40 to 70-mph.
PLEASE NOTE: there are other batting weight studies with small sample sizes (ranging from 7 to 60 players) comparing High School, College, and recreational hitters in laboratory settings (not LIVE batting practice). Adrenaline or others batter’s routines could have influenced performance in these. Basically the variable wasn’t properly isolated…that being said, a study with 20 college baseball players found “their performance was statistically unchanged.”
Dr. DeRenne, found using a 28-ounce batting weight changed the balance point of the bat and slowed down bat speed.
In Sports Science video above, a college hitter in 2008 hit 10 machine pitched balls WITHOUT using a batting weight before, and had an average bat speed of 69-mph, and routinely connected with the sweet spot. After using the batting weight, then taking another 10 swings off the same pitching machine, his average bat speed dropped to 68.3-mph, and on each swing he missed the bat’s sweet spot by several inches.
The above video talked about how because the hitter swings the bat at a slower pace using a batting weight, more red slow twitch endurance muscle fibers get recruited, thereby decreasing the amount of white fast twitch muscle fibers which fire two to three times faster. Warming up with batting weight in on-deck circle is actually priming the wrong muscles before stepping in the box.
The experience of a single batter can’t be generalized to others, but the results resembled other studies.
“People are always looking for an edge,” Dr. Szymanski said, “but just because a professional athlete does something doesn’t mean it’s good or helpful or right.”
The Bottom Line?
Now, a 0.7-mph drop in average bat speed doesn’t seem like a lot, but as you saw, it makes a BIG difference in barreling the ball. As retired Physicist Dr. Alan Nathan says:
If ball hits bat 1-inch off sweet spot = then 1 to 2-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 4 to 8-feet less distance!)
If ball hits bat 2-inch off sweet spot = then 2 to 3-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 8 to 12-feet less distance!)
If ball hits bat 3-inch off sweet spot = then 3 to 4-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 12 to 16-feet less distance!)
So, not only are hitters losing bat speed using a batting weight on the on-deck circle, but by barreling up the ball LESS OFTEN, they’re losing batted ball distance as well. Aside from swinging the hitter’s own bat, I’d say swinging a lighter bat – faster – would help the body recruit more of those white fast twitch muscle fibers before stepping in the box.
Your thoughts?
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
Is “Swinging Down” Okay Since Alex Rodriguez Said So?
Before you watch the above video interview with Perry Husband, please watch the following 7-min video of Alex Rodriguez sticking-it-to-the-hitting-man lol (I promise you, it’s rather entertaining)…
Wow! The Social hitting community had a blast with this video. Coaches talking how:
Cool his blue pool (which turned purple periodically throughout the video), and green lush backyard were…
Alex Rodriguez YouTube channel titled, “HOW TO HIT HOME RUNS | TIPS FOR THE BEST APPROACH AT THE PLATE”
He added some sweet after effects into his video…
He may have had a couple bottles of wine (not glasses) pre-shoot, probably at the cautioning of his gal-pal J-Lo…
And the elephant in the room, how he seemed disconnected describing the elite swing…
There was A LOT to unpack in A-Rod’s video…here’s what he covered in only 7-mins:
Real v. Feel – How to get the ball up…Swing down to get the ball up…swing down for “line to line”
How to be effective as a hitter(Launch Angles, Line to Line) – forget “Launch Angle”, “Line to line” (beat the shift)…Legs underneath you with leverage, knee down to the ground…Think with “Ferris Wheel” launch angle…Ferris Wheel & “blind spot”…can’t catch up to fastball up?
Sabermetrics v. Experience – Top 4 of last 5 winning teams, #1 in contact, least in K’s…Sabermetrics v. Experience…”an out is an out”, “K’s are overrated”…”Made to measure” approach, contact is king.
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.
Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.
So now back to the video analysis Perry Husband and I did (tippy-top video) of A-Rod’s video analysis. Here are some bullet points of what we cover:
Does hitting 100-mph ball exit speed mean you’re maxing out? How do you know what your max is?
How applying tested human movement principles validated by REAL Science results in almost instant changes to key metrics,
Why hasn’t analytics given more value to Perry’s Effective Velocity?
Are there instances that “swinging down” is okay to teach hitters?
Why fastballs down, hit on the ground, reveal some of the highest ball exit speeds & why curveballs are some of the farthest hit balls…
As always, the following are quick reference points you can use to jump around in the supplemental analysis:
At about the 0:00 minute mark, talking about Alex Rodriguez explaining feel and “swinging down”, “squishing bugs”, and knee going to the ground, A-Rod said only way to lift is to “go down”
At about the 5-min, 30-sec mark, three major issues A-Rod brings up in the video: 1 ) Real v. Feel, 2) How to be effective as a hitter, & 3) Sabermetrics v. Experience, coaches go to one side or the other, A-Rod is right and wrong at the same time, lets get player (ahem, A-Rod) on tee and measure ball exit speed and launch angle – test it! Let’s quantify and prove it or disprove it, early barrel dump works if pitchers aren’t elevating fastballs, very little on internet is testable, guys not liking ball exit speed and heavy ball tee swings for evaluation – Why not wanting a baseline? Just because you’re hitting 100-mph exit velocity, is that your maximum? How do you know without a baseline?
At about 14-min 30-sec mark, 3-dimensional hitting – verticals, horizontals, and timing or pitch velocity, where does power come from (according to A-Rod)? what do certain mechanics contribute to verticals, horizontals, power, or timing? Testing a hitter off the tee with regular ball, then heavy ball, then test it LIVE with ball, can see where hitter is deficient, out of 7-8 new kids (current hitters Perry is working with) have increased avg. 7 to 8-mph ball exit speed almost instantaneously, cleaning up mechanics aren’t like getting stronger and more coordinated, which takes more time,
At about 22-min 30 secs mark, Launch Angles are numbers without brains and coaches treat it like a character in a movie! Has Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton ever hit a ball at their max in a game? “Ferris wheel” swing and the “blind spot”, what happens when the low fastball disappears, from TM’s perspective what is the “Ferris wheel” swing or is he using the WORST metaphor ever?! “Merry-Go-Round” versus “Ferris Wheel” swing, having a little bit of both depending on pitch height, depth, and timing, 150 locations within the strike zone – can you take same swing to each of those?
At about 30-min mark, Perry talks about his swing was in low-80’s in Ball Exit Speed when 100% purely rotational swing, but in the high 80’s low-90’s when releasing backside, there are consequences to mechanics you choose, are you afraid to test it? Perry is starting a club doing a bunch of different tests and demos on the mechanical side and effective velocity (show hitters what they’re missing), 18 of 19 Reds losses came on an EV inefficient pitch,
Add 32-Feet With 'Weighted Bat Training'
Grab this FREE VIDEO: "How To Gain 32-Feet Of Batted Ball Distance In 6-Weeks Using Weighted Bat Training(No Mechanical Changes Needed)"
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's validated by REAL Science & supported by Data...
At about 35-min, 30-sec mark, what’s your hitting operating system? Best hitters in the world miss 80% of the time and hit it on the screws 20% of the time, is your hitting OS to reduce strikeouts above everything else? What are you giving up because of your primary hitting OS? Looking away and adjusting in works IF pitchers keep throwing fastballs outside and/or down, and leaving off speed stuff up, what happens when Trout doesn’t see one fastball down? Or one off speed or breaking pitch up? Why hasn’t analytics given more value to Effective Velocity? Because they don’t acknowledge measurement of timing,
At about 43-min mark, how can a pitcher be effective with Trout, he chooses to adjust to pitches not sit on them, he gives up a longer front arm on pitches up and in to get extended on down and away, how do you move away from the “adjustable” swing, 2015 Trout hit 6 bombs in the up/in box – made adjustment to pitchers changing, Trout almost has a recession-proof swing,
At about 50-min mark, if did study May of 2019 – fastball use top of strike zone would be up, couldn’t do 100% ferris wheel or 100% rotational, A-Rod is right and wrong at the same time, “swinging down” is okay for uppercut hitters, the brain is one step behind the brain, however in REAL swinging down on the ball DOES NOT make it go up consistently – center to center contact does (or slightly below center), gotta get hitters better at verticals, horizontals, and timing, can’t be 100% metrics OR 100% experience, “econ” hitting coaches? Linking Sabermetrics to the Scientific Process – asking question, form hypothesis, research subject, gather and compare data, then come to conclusion,
At about 57-min mark, Perry discusses how overrated backspin is and the importance A-Rod gave to it, why fastballs at bottom of zone have high exit velocities on the ground – from hitter’s perspective fastballs have backspin, struck grounders don’t change direction of pitcher’s spin…same with curveballs, Dr. Robert Adair in The Physics of Baseballsaid CB’s are hit the furthest – think about it, from hitter’s perspective CB’s have topspin, and when a hitter puts “backspin” on it, this doesn’t change direction of pitcher’s CB spin, so a pitcher should reverse that, locate fastballs up and curveballs down,
At the 1-hour, 2-min mark, Perry’s starting paid membership club at 65% OFF*(for limited time only) to get people started, daily Monday through Friday, demos, study of hitter or pitcher, at bat that stood out from EV standpoint, 15-20 min video that shows in personal locker, do for baseball and softball,
At about 1-hour, 6-min mark, I talk specifically how to lock the front arm out – direction-wise – to get ‘showing numbers’ and ‘hiding hands’ as well, killing three birds with one stone
*The regular price on that will be $299 for the year, but the first 100 will get 2/3 off or $99 for the year. They get their own personal online locker where the videos will be delivered Mon through Friday. 15-20 minute videos that will feature pitching strategy on sequencing, pitch design, hitter profiles, pitcher profiles and breakdowns, at bat of the day with data and Ev breakdown. In other words, the truth about what’s really going on within the game, timing breakdown.
Add 32-Feet With 'Weighted Bat Training'
Grab this FREE VIDEO: "How To Gain 32-Feet Of Batted Ball Distance In 6-Weeks Using Weighted Bat Training(No Mechanical Changes Needed)"
Click the button below to access the FREE video that's validated by REAL Science & supported by Data...
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/a-rod-hitting-video-perry-husband-joey-myers-interview.png279500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-08-01 09:30:442022-08-02 02:56:09Is Hitting Hard Line Drives Using Swinging Up Or Down Drills? Getting On Top Of Baseball Or Softball? | How To Stop Chopping Ground Balls & Square Ball Up!
Discover pro batting stance weight shift, transfer, and distribution on the back foot for baseball and softball swing. Learn how to see which stride hitting drills work and which do not.
How To Make Teaching Proper Weight Shift In Swing More Understandable To Hitter
Here’s the Hitting Jam Session Interview Collection with Perry Husband:
At about the 4-minute mark, what’s missing with current hitting philosophies and what is effective and what is not, filtering through the white noise, Science v. bro-science testing,
At about 6-minute mark, What’s #1 struggle with teaching hitting right now? We answer reader question, “Making teaching of proper weight shift in your swing and more understandable to the hitter?” getting off the back foot, foul ball rate goes down significantly by releasing the back foot, increase in exit velocity when releasing the back foot, Perry’s 10,000 swing tests show these same things, take bat out of hand and try similar movements – i.e. lightly playing catch will allow back foot to “push” and “turn”, forward momentum and rotation, anything you can do to get the backside to release is great to model what we want them to do swinging.
At about 10-minute mark, the challenge with teaching hitting mechanics, some players (Rachel Garcia was mentioned) easier to demonstrate then do, what kind of learner that player is (seeing, hearing, feeling), throwing motion (feel learner), video or demonstration (visual), “release-mechanism” that ‘clicks’ hitting aid would be cool for an audio learner.
At about 13-minute, 30-second mark, Jim Macarelli responded, “the difference with throwing though as you know is the weight ends up on the front foot.” Centrifugal (center fleeing) v. Centripetal (center seeking), imagine throwing uphill versus throwing downhill, will be harder to get off your backside throwing up hill, not over front side – up against it when hitting, not every player gets off their backside, don’t take our word for it – test it!! Exit velocity, ball flight, and consistency all get better releasing the back side.
At about 17-minute mark, sure BAD Science is out there, here’s the key with Science, with what you’re doing – can that end result or outcome be replicated a majority of the time? Bryce Harper WaPo article addressing biomechanics of shifting weight into the ball, squishing bugs and backside hitting transfers only 75% of hitter’s bodyweight VERSUS releasing backside and transferring 150% of bodyweight into impact, Perry’s swing experiments found a 6-mph increase in Ball Exit Speed, bat speed during back foot skip releases much closer to impact whereas a backside weighted swing top out bat speed is sooner than impact,
At about 21-minute 30-second mark, dumping barrel right in front of catcher’s glove regardless of pitch depth is DANGEROUS for hitters career-wise, causes big loop in swing and hole up in the zone, Hank Aaron, Rod Carew, Roberto Clemente all released the back foot, Jim Macarelli asks “I think the challenge with teaching kids is we want them to stride and shift their weight forward, but we want them to FINISH with their weight back, not stay back throughout the swing… if that makes sense. Timing clearly effects the back foot. When of time the backside releases and when late, often not.” Hitters like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams released the back foot, then fell back onto back foot during finish, release first, then fall back,
At about 25-minute mark, how do we control our hitters from over-striding, belly button is our center of mass, axis of rotation during front and back flips, using variance to teach hitters not to over-stride: stride with belly button finishing over front knee at landing, then stride and land with belly button behind back knee, then stride keeping belly button in the center of legs, then stride keeping belly button behind front knee, then lastly stride keeping the belly button inside the back knee, all about locomotion, Tai Chi and shifting bodyweight, to do a lunge to the right – I have to shift my weight left to move to the right (and opposite for the opposite direction), Perry talks about the Reebok core board(feedback tool), experimenting with weight shift – downhill versus uphill, using Power Up Wedge
At about 31-minute 30-second mark, Nassim Talib’s book Antifragile – the majority of invention and innovation in history stems from tinker and testing NOT research and study, aspirin, penicillin as examples, Mike Ryan from Fastball USA has some great variance or chaos training stuff, David Weck and his Bosu Ball, striding uphill/downhill, try different things, tinker test, 3-D Hitting, Perry going to do stuff with University of Oregon softball, WARNING with some of these “force plate” tests: if it doesn’t include ball flight and exit velocity we don’t want to talk about it, how can we make any kind of conclusion from the data without that? Is happening off tee or LIVE pitching, releasing or spinning on backside, MYTH: the more ground force created is better, how does that translate to ball exit speed and ball flight?
At about 38-minute, 30-second mark, how to do these swing experiments, changing one swing variable at a time, then re-test, can take ANY hitter do a control round, change, and re-test to see how the change affected the control swings, Frosh softball High School player did over/under load training ONLY in a 6-week span, after re-testing went from 55-mph BES (control) to 62-mph, whoever you follow hitting guru-wise, get control swings, make the change, re-test, and see how BES and ball flight changed – for better or worse, what’s your main objective teaching hitters – high hard contact rate? Decrease strikeouts?
At about 44-minute mark, Perry talks about how effective or ineffective were the 2-strike adjustments Joey Votto made, CLICK HERE for Perry’s analysis article on this, in 2-strike counts: balls fouled back, swung and missed, etc. were balls he could have done damage with, can elite hitters foul balls off on purpose, Votto wasted so many good pitches with a less aggressive approach with 2-strikes, when Perry worked with Carlos Pena in 2009: K’s went down 25%, BA went up 25%, 2-strike BA went from .185 to .240, tripled his output with 2-strikes, Votto approach didn’t make much sense – he may have cut down on his K’s but his production went way down compared to before the change, reactionary hitting will die with EV efficient pitching, Joey Votto FanGraphs article, “Joey Votto Has Just Simply Stopped Striking Out”
At about 52-minute mark, discuss how poorly hitters will do when pitchers get more EV efficient, CLICK HERE for a video Perry did analyzing Chris Davis (of the Orioles), perfect example of a hitter gearing his swing to about a stubborn 6-mph EV zone regardless of pitch type, location, or speed, all 50-something of the homeruns he hit pitchers ran the ball right into his bat, when target rich environment goes away (pitchers throwing balls into barrel), it’s going to be a cold dark day in hitting, adjust or die, Carlos Pena’s chase rate went down 18% in 2009, changing the physical can take time (Perry suggests 3-4 months for more entrenched habits) – my research suggests 66-days to change a habit.
Find Perry Husband at HittingIsAGuess.com, use EV25 coupon code at checkout for online video courses. If coupon code doesn’t work, then contact Perry and he’ll reset for you.
My offer…FREE Catapult Loading System 2nd edition print book – just pay $8.95 shipping and handling (retails on Amazon for $19.97) – in addition you’ll get our essential consistent power online video mini-course Power Hitter 2.0: Engineering The Alpha: https://www.truthaboutexplosiverotationalpower.com/pl/60039
Grab This FREE 'Timing Master Class' Video
Struggling to get your hitters ON-TIME in games? Discover HOW TO build effective laser-focused timing, so your hitters can be ON-TIME more often. These principles are validated by REAL science.
Click the button below to access the FREE video that has been downloaded over 6K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/perry-husband-joey-myers-jam-session3.png281500Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-08-01 09:15:552022-08-02 00:11:44Pro Batting Stance Weight Shift, Transfer, And Distribution On Back Foot For Baseball & Softball Swing Hitting Drills
, by 
said CB’s are hit the furthest – think about it, from hitter’s perspective CB’s have topspin, and when a hitter puts “backspin” on it, this doesn’t change direction of pitcher’s CB spin, so a pitcher should reverse that, locate fastballs up and curveballs down,
(feedback tool), experimenting with weight shift – downhill versus uphill, using Power Up Wedge
– the majority of invention and innovation in history stems from tinker and testing NOT research and study, aspirin, penicillin as examples, Mike Ryan from Fastball USA has some great variance or chaos training stuff, David Weck and his 
, striding uphill/downhill, try different things, tinker test, 3-D Hitting, Perry going to do stuff with University of Oregon softball, WARNING with some of these “force plate” tests: if it doesn’t include ball flight and exit velocity we don’t want to talk about it, how can we make any kind of conclusion from the data without that? Is happening off tee or LIVE pitching, releasing or spinning on backside, MYTH: the more ground force created is better, how does that translate to ball exit speed and ball flight?